Venting

[Scott_F]

Friday, grass is growing, need to mow. Try to start the tractor, have to jump-start it. No biggie. Mow for about 20 minutes then the heat related problem from last year starts to appear. Turn off the PTO, throttle back and let it cool off for a minute. Turn the PTO back on - nothing happens. Flip the switch a few more times - nothing. Take it back to the garage, park next to garage, turn it off. Try to start it again just to see if the battery charged - nothing. Hyd cooling fan comes on, lights come on, starter does nothing, zip, zilch. Look under the engine cover. Find a broken wire between the starter and a little aluminum block with cooling fins mounted on the left side. Look closer. Wire harness has three wires - two insulated, one bare. Look even closer. Bare wire used to have green insulation but it's completely burned off. Call Terry, describe problem. Terry tells me to order a new wiring harness. Call Keith, order a new harness. Grass still growing. Thursday, UPS man brings wiring harness. Open box - wrong one (and they wanted $90 for it). Friday, spend two hours scouring the auto parts stores for the right connectors (or at least ones that will work) Spend an hour replacing the wires. Wish I'd parked it inside the garage when it quit. Hook up the jumper cables. Fires right up (yippie). Turn on the PTO - fires right up (yippie again). Start mowing again (grass still growing). Get halfway around the yard - dies. Dead as a hammer. No lights. No starter. Nothing. Hook up the jumper cables. Start tractor. Try PTO - nothing. Put tractor inside the garage this time. Call Terry - describe again - "wiring harness from the starter to a little aluminum block with cooling fins". Terry says it's part of the charging system - "You need to call Jack at Robin". Call Jack. Jack says there's no way to test that component (thing with fins) but I can check the charging system by removing the front cover. That means removing the engine. Jack asks if it's still under warranty. Check the paperwork from PT - about three weeks left on the warranty. Jack says look on the web and find the closest Robin service place. Already know who it is. Weeds getting taller than grass. Borrow a trailer. Saturday, haul it 1 hour to nearest Robin place. He tells me "I don't want to touch it."
"But, your a Robin warranty guy, right?"
"Right but we don't usually work on stuff like this, why don't you take it to Power Track?"
"They don't cover the engine, Robin covers the engine, and you're the Robin guy."
"But, we don't know anything about it".
Another guy says "you can leave it and we'll call Robin to see if they'll cover it". Leave the tractor, go home. Grass still growing, borrowed neighbors JD (which used to be mine) and mowed. Monday, call Jack, tell him the nearest Robin place doesn't want to work on my tractor. Jack calls them. Jack calls me back, says they'll work on it. I call them, get a huge ear-full about how he wishes it wasn't even there. They get screwed on warranty work all the time. They don't know anything about Power Tracs. They usually just work on single cylinder lawnmowers. Theyv'e never worked on one of these engines. On and on. He guesses they'll look at it, but it will be 2-4 weeks. I'm thinking they're not very motivated to work on my tractor. Grass growing again.

Sorry for the venting. I really like my tractor (or at least the PT concept) but I'm also beginning to think the negatives on this thing are starting to outweigh the positives.

Scott

 

[toolz_not_toyz]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( He guesses they'll look at it, but it will be 2-4 weeks. I'm thinking they're not very motivated to work on my tractor. )</font>

I think that's their point, because if they motivated it would be looked at within 24hrs. So if Robin pressures them what will the outcome be? Maybe they will decide not to be a Robin repair center at all and then you will have even further to drive the next time. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[smartguyz]

Yuk,

That sounds awful. I am sorry to hear of your problems. The question is, would this be any better with something like a Kohler?

-Rob /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[outridder]

The sad part is having to borrow your old tractor back. Got some of those feelings when I messed the plug threads up but now up and running. Not hard to understand why someone wouldn't want to work on the engine when it comes in a box. Good Luck...Dan

 

[blackwell]

Sorry for your troubles.

We had a valve spring break on our PT180, Robin 18HP. Called our local Robin repair shop, he picked the machine up at the job site about an hour later, repaired it and returned it the following day about 1pm. Robin does have some good repair shops out there. Maybe Jack at Robin can help.
Good luck,
EB

 

[BrianP]

HI Scott that SUCKS. Robin shuold take care if it no problem. United Rental up is a good place to try . Maybe you have 1 near you. Or try calling rental places to see if there a service center for Robin. They seam to be more reliable & willing to help. Good luck. let us know

 

[JackRobin]

Scott,

As per our phone conversation, I hope we'll get this taken care of in the timely manner. As you are all probably aware, every engine manufacturer out there is not able to control or even know the reputation of the signed dealer, with the big quanity of dealers nationwide we are just not able to control every single engine shop out there.

I would assume that you have got the name and phone number to this dealer from our dealer locator. Our dealer locator clearly states:

"Please keep in mind that not all Robin Subaru dealers sell or service every Robin Subaru product, so we advise you to call the dealer to discuss your needs before you go to their location"

- This is to prevent situations like yours, drive for an hour and get a weak support from the dealer. I'm not blaming you or am I excusing the dealer for treating you the way he did, but that one phone call could change the whole situation.
On the other hand, we just cannot assure everyone in the US that we will have a Servicing Dealer on every corner, it's just simply impossible.
I see tons of dealers go out of business on daily basis, mainly due to the "great" economy that we're facing at the moment.

So I ask you this for the future, if you'll locate the Robin Service Center, call them first before you take your piece of equipment into the shop, it'll save you aggrivation and unnecessary waste of gas. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Best regards,

Jack Gawecki
Robin America, Inc.
Technical Support Dept.
800-277-6246
http://www.robinsubaru.com

 

[Scott_F]

After looking at the service and parts manuals (downloaded from Robin's web site, nice feature) and thinking about my problem a little longer, I decided that nothing good was going to come from leaving my tractor with these people, so yesterday I took it back home. Jack at Robin has put me on the right track as far as testing the charge coil and replacing the voltage regulator. If that doesn't fix it, I'll probably have to pull the engine. It'll be a learning experience /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif, but will probably still take less time and hassle than dealing with the repair center in question. BTW - Jack at Robin has been a super help through all this. He's very knowledgeable and I completely understand his points above. I don't blame Robin at all for the attitude of the folks at this place. My impression is that they've got their racket going replacing spark plugs and changing oil at $50 an hour for people who don't a mower blade from a muffler, and don't want to do anything else. Actually, I did call them to tell them I was coming (with a Power Trac) and all they said was "Bring the receipt".

I'll be back on "Trac" soon.

Scott